Mealtimes
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All food will be freshly cooked at nursery. Menus have been carefully planned to meet the nutritional requirements of children and guidance from the Children's Food Trust has guided menu planning. Menus will be published in due course.
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Mealtimes are an important time of day for children. Within the baby room the mealtime routine will be dictated by the individual needs of the babies themselves. Some babies may be fed in highchairs whilst others may sit at a table to eat. Some babies may still be bottle fed or feeding mothers may choose to come in to nursery to breast feed.
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Within the toddler room children will eat in their key groups with their key practitioners, the same applies with children in preschool.
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Preschool children will be expected to serve themselves from choices made available on their tables. Staff will support children to make healthy choices, e.g., to choose a balanced meal consisting of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables. Children in the preschool will eat from china plates and drink from glasses at all mealtimes, unless a risk assessments informs us otherwise. Toddlers and babies will use plastic plates and beakers.
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Ofsted registered full day care nursery
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Mealtimes
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Our meals are freshly cooked at nursery by our nursery chef, some menu items, such as fish fingers and fish cakes, are bought ready made; these would only usually be offered at tea time.
Menus have been carefully planned to meet the nutritional requirements of children; planning draws on guidance from the Children's Food Trust and the government's under 5 menu planning guide. Weekly menus are displayed at the nursery and can also be viewed below.
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Mealtimes are an important time of day for children. Within the baby room the mealtime routine is dictated by the individual needs of the babies themselves, food service times will vary according to individual needs. Babies enjoy sociable small group mealtimes - these times are unrushed and always relaxed and enjoyable.
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Within the preschool and toddler rooms children eat in their key groups with their key team members. Toddlers and preschool children serve themselves from choices made available on their tables. Practitioners support children to choose a balanced meal consisting of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables.
All children eat from china plates and use metal cutlery; toddlers and preschool children drink from glasses, unless a risk assessments informs us otherwise. Babies drink from plastic feeder beakers until they are ready to transition to open glasses, this will happen in the baby room in preparation for moving to our toddler room.
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Allergies and Food Intolerances
We observe allergy and intolerance requirements for children in attendance. We have a very small kitchen so there is a limit to the number of children we can accept with medical dietary requirements, as such, we may be required to place a child with medically informed dietary requirements on our waiting list until we are able to safely accommodate their needs.
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Preferences, Like and Dislikes
Preferences,
Likes and Dislikes
Like adults, children have preferences, likes and dislikes. Our menus have been designed to provide choice in order that children may select foods that they enjoy. We will always encourage children to make choices from all food available, however, our primary aim is to support all children to enjoy mealtimes. Children who enjoy mealtimes are more likely to try different foods than children who are fearful of this time of day.
Individual Dietary Requirements
Individual Dietary Requirements
We will always meet children's individual dietary requirements.
Where a child has an identified allergy this will be made known to all practitioners and steps will be taken to ensure that food containing the allergen is not offered to the child. We will work in partnership with parents, medical practitioners and the child him/herself to meet dietary requirements.
Fussy
and
Faddy Eaters
Fussy and Faddy Eaters
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Some children simply refuse to try new foods which is different to having preferences, likes and dislikes. Again, we will work in partnership with parents, medical practitioners and with the child him/herself in order to support fussy and faddy eaters to expand their food choices. Advice will also be sought from an appropriate health professional.
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